West Chester, PA (11/14/2020)

Saturday, November 14, 2020
Finally, a sunny day!

West Chester has been the Chester County seat since 1786 when the county was divided and the seat was moved from Chester in what is now Delaware County.

28 W Market Street/Lincoln Building (1833,
by William Strickland as the Everhart Building)
is a federal style end-of-row commercial
building where the first published biography
of Abraham Lincoln was printed in 1860

212 S High Street/Church of the Holy Trinity
Parish Hall entrance (1868-1870) (KSS)

Church of the Holy Trinity (1868-1870, in Gothic Revival style)
is constructed with green serpentine stone and brick used as trim

Constant rain has brought down much of the
fall foliage, but this Acer palmatum/
Japanese Maple hangs in there

Chester County Court House (1846-1848, by Thomas U Walter,
who also designed the United States Capitol dome)

Chester County Court House addition (1892,
by T Roney Williamson in Indiana limestone)

10 N High Street (1963 as the north wing
of the Chester County Court House in
International style), sold in 2014

The façade of 10 N High Street has four stone relief panels (1966, by Harry Rosin) depicting figures from West Chester history.

101 E Gay Street/United States Post Office (1907 in Neoclassical
style, rear addition 1935) is constructed of local Cockeysville
Marble that was also used to face the Washington Monument in DC)

309 N Matlack Street (1872) has a pair of cannons on the lawn!

Next is Marshall Square Park (1848); West Chester's first public square was named for world-renowned botanist Humphry Marshall (also cousin to John Bartram, another world-renowned botanist). The square has a collection of 160 species of trees and shrubs. General Lafayette visited and reviewed troops in 1825 near the park, as part of his tour of all 24 states in the union at that time.

Union Soldier Monument (1887) honors
the 97th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment

Marshall Square Park gazebo and
a carpet of Gingko biloba leaves (KSS)

Iconic yellow autumn leaves of the gingko tree (KSS)

Friends (2018, by Marty Long) is carved
from the standing stump of a 150-year old red oak

A fattened Sciurus carolinensis/Eastern Gray Squirrel
looks like he is ready for winter

Jack Loew Memorial Fountain (1889); looks like the fence
and fountain were repaired after a tree fell on it in May 2020

Decorated yard at 302 N High Street, including a banner
of the Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL Stanley Cup 2020 champions 

226 N High Street/Former West Chester Armory (1916) was
transformed into the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center (2014)

225 N High Street/Horticulture Hall (1848, by Thomas U Walter
in Romanesque style) was one of two buildings in the country
at the time used expressly for horticulture exhibitions; it was also
the site of the first Pennsylvania women's rights convention in 1852

205 N High Street/Former YMCA (1908) now houses the
Chester County Historical Society Museum

120 N High Street/Former Warner Theater (1930,
by Rapp & Rapp in Art Deco style) is now a hotel

137-123 N High Street (c 1860)

111 N High Street/Greentree Building (1933)
with a refurbished Art Deco façade

Several blocks of Gay Street are closed off by barriers to create
a large outdoor dining area, to assist restaurants and retail to
continue business while also complying with Pennsylvania's health
department social distancing guidelines during the pandemic

17 N High Street/Former First Bank of Chester County (1837,
by Thomas U Walter in Greek Revival style) is the oldest
commercial structure in West Chester still
doing business for which it was built

9 N High Street/Former First National Bank (1912, by Baker & Dallett)

Back at the Chester County Court House:

Displayed on the portico of the Chester County
Court House is a plaque of the Commandments,
a 1920 gift from the Council of Religious Education
of the Federated Churches of West Chester

The plaque, stating the ten commandments from the 1603 King James version of the Bible, has been the subject of controversy. Since 2002 it was covered, until 2018 when the court overturned the ruling in which a federal trial judge found that the plaque represented an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by government. The 2002 decision is said to have "failed to properly consider the plaque's non-religious significance and the county's 'neutral policy' of historic preservation." However, most of the people who support having the Commandments at the courthouse, want it there because of its religious significance (or perhaps to preserve the history of Old Testament times!).

Town Drinking Fountain (1869) was for
people, horses, and dogs

Old Glory (1911, by Harry Lewis Raul)

Leaving downtown West Chester.

1200 Wilson Drive/QVC Studio Park (1997, by Gensler)

QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping. It was founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, PA. QVC Studio Park once had studio tours and a retail store, but both closed in 2019.